Slappers on a RZ4?

[bsreid]

what is this kit?

Germaine marine has put together a kit with "taps 3" (locally made to be exactly like tige's) and used the same lenco actuators as tige. So basically the only different part compared to factory is the controller not being electronic.

[UNSTUCK]

GSA is $3900. Sorry, but i must suck at math...............

My tabs cost me about $200
Actuators cost about $400
Gps controller about $1400
Small parts less than $200

That gets you taps 3 without a touch screen.

I guess you do.

[dakota4ce]

Cmon man--you made your tabs!That's a major exception! Bsreid had to buy them, like 97% of people would have to, for approx $1600-1700.

If you have the time, the expertise, the tools, the plans etc; then you could do it. That's almost nobody outside of machinists, fabricators, farmers.

So your number is unrealistic to the normal man out and about trying to get surf tabs!


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[bsreid]

Exactly. I very much considered making my own but it just wasn't worth it.

[UNSTUCK]

I did make my tabs. I have offered the service a couple times to others, so it is possible to have these tabs on the cheap. $2200 included the entire "kit" as I read it, not to mention any mark up from Germaine. If you buy the GPS controller you wont need to buy a lot of the parts that come in that kit, saving more. I think my TAPS 21 thread spells out every part you need to buy so it's easy to build the kit yourself. So if you did have to buy everything it would still come out way cheaper than GSA, though probably not half. So if you have a Z boat or similar I think that's the way to go. Taps 3 is proven on them, so go with a proven wave maker and put money in your pocket.

I wonder if anyone has tried using the trim tabs that Lenco makes. They may or may not work as well as taps 3 or GSA tabs. As I recall they are pretty affordable. My ideal set up is to use a GSA controller with slappers on the new boat. I talked to Ryan about that. He wont sell his controllers separately though.

[dakota4ce]

Slappers on a RZ4?

Plain Lenco trim tabs will not remotely approach what TAPS3 or GSA tabs do. Contrary to what everyone likes to think, there is more to them than listing the boat. Same for TAPS3. They are both designed to list/crab and throw a column of water (GSA=a few small columns) out laterally which then returns to boost the wave strength further back.

My main point is: everyone rags on GSA for being "too expensive". But unless you make your tabs (a notable exception), it's not any more expensive than a "purchased" retrofit fabricated TAPS3 system is when you have an automated controller. The same point the Chp was making.

If you weren't going to charge a good penny for making a set for someone else, then you're too nice LOL!

PS your slappers will work great. Not sure why you want GSA's controller, the WakeLogic one is perfect for slappers.


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[chpthril]

ok ok ok, I get it now. So no one here has actually purchased the real McCoy TAPS-3 from Tige. What you have done is source similar components, or in case of actuators, source the same part number. Huge difference. I would like to see the actual Tige TAPS-3 kit from Tige, come in at half the cost of GAS. Reason being, if you are not buying the actual TAPS-3 from tige, you do not actually have TAPS-3 on your boat. Instead, you have a homemade tab surf system. And that, I fully expect to be way less than a GSA system.

I can get a cheap pair of aluminum 8" asian imported tower pods and source speaker guts from parts express and put it all together................doesnt mean I have myself a Wet Sounds Rev-8, see my point? No offence, but if you are saying you have TAPS-3 for less than half of a GSA, it should be TAPS-3. Anything else is just another surf system copied off an existing one.

Not knocking anyone's surf system nor dogging you for what you got. Just disagree with calling it TAPS-3 when comparing price to GSA.

[bsreid]

My local dealer said when taps 3 first came out they retrofitted quite a few bit ended up being stopped by tige.

Unstuck, do you have a link to this controller you speak of?

[UNSTUCK]

As I understand it you can't go to Tige and purchase Taps 3. You can go to your dealer, in this case Germaine, and ask them to retrofit Taps 3. They don't go to Tige either. They put the parts list together just like I would.

I totally agree about calling a knock off system taps 3. Germain is calling this boat taps 3 equipped. They should at least make it automated if they are going to call it that.

http://www.germainemarineutah.com/20...998&in-stock=1


My point is with all of this is that I feel the idea of owning a boat has to cost a lot does not have to be right. I feel a lot of people believe and have just accepted that if you own a boat you have to spend lots of money on everything. That's just not the case. If GSA's wave was crushing everything else out there then I would have no problems putting that system on my next boat. If I can build a system that's half the price for the same wave or even maybe a bit less, that's the route to go. I don't have money that I can needlessly throw away. Not sure I would if I did have it.

[UNSTUCK]

Unstuck, do you have a link to this controller you speak of?

I only know of this one for GPS control of the tabs now that GSA wont sell theirs.

http://www.wakegarage.com/wake-logic-contact


Check out this one as well for non GPS automated control. You can contact him if you want this system.

http://www.wakegarage.com/projects-a...-slappers-r28/

[dakota4ce]

I would argue this counter point that GSA has done -lots of- people a huge favor. Now you can go buy a $30-40-50-60K boat and drop a turnkey system on it and make an equivalent or arguably better wave than a factory surf setup. It has opened the door to many more opportunities to have a great surf boat beyond the expensive factory systems. People bitch and moan about it being $4000 when it really presents an opportunity to save tens of thousands on the boat itself. For all those that AREN'T handy and or fabricators, this option kicks *** if you ask me.

This is more than a theory for me--I did it. I have a 24' surf boat that gives me the $120k surf experience for $58K. I could have slapped the boat and saved $2000 probably, that I admit. I wasn't fully educated on that at the time, but my testing has showed me the GSA outperforms the slappers just enough to matter for me (225# surfer). So in the end I am pleased and quite admire GSA and the leap they took into the aftermarket. Good on them!


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[dakota4ce]

Side note: HUGE HIJACK! Sorry OP! Slap that RZ4, it will work great.

Side note 2: I am a little surprised Tige is OK with Germaine's kit. That's pretty awesome if they are!


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[bsreid]

Last august I asked one of the tige reps about adding taps 3 and he had absolutely no idea people were doing it.

[BrandonRZ4]

Lol. Ya we went way right field from the OP. It's all good I like hearing all the opinions.
Original test at about 22 degrees on a 10x24 slapper went good. But surprisingly not as good as a 80 degree 8x11 suck gate. Going to run some more tests this weekend with different size slappers and angles before I commit to hdpe and actuators

[dakota4ce]

22-24 degrees I think is the magic MB number.


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